Shannen Doherty ‘devastated’ about new round of chemo, seen with friends weeks before death
Shannen Doherty struggled with the idea of undergoing chemotherapy again before her death at age 53.
The actress, who lost her year-long battle with stage 4 breast cancer on Saturday, talked about her cancer treatment in one of her final podcast episodes released on June 24.
“I have to go back to chemo and it’s really hard,” Doherty said on “Let’s Be Clear.”
“The thought of going through this again just devastated me.”
“It devastated me in the sense that, yes, I knew I had stage 4 and yes, I knew it was really serious, but when you have to go to the hospital and you have to come down. [and] Putting a port in you, it becomes very real in an incredibly different way,” he added.
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” star said at the time that she had “no idea” how long she would be in chemo.
“I have no idea if it’s going to be, you know, three months or if it’s going to be six months, or if it doesn’t work after three months, if we’re going to change again,” he explained.
“It’s not something I can predict,” Doherty noted. “It’s not something my doctors could have predicted. And it’s scary.”
Doherty said going through chemo was “a big wake-up call” for her, and between her cancer battle and her divorce from husband Kurt Iswarienko, she felt her “life was unknown”.
“It feels like I have no grip on it and I have no control,” he elaborated. “And most people who know me know that I’m kind of a control freak. I like to control things. And with cancer, it really has no control. It doesn’t matter how much research I do. It doesn’t matter how natural, holistic, like, believe me, friends, I try everything.
“I’m very much a person who’s open to anything,” Doherty said. “And it doesn’t help me. And medicine and science have kept me alive and helped me the longest.”
A month before her death, Doherty was seen with friends in Malibu in the last public photo of the beloved star.
Doherty, his longtime friend Chris Cortazzo, and a female friend left Christie’s Waterfront restaurant on June 16. Cortazzo wrapped his arms around Doherty.
The “Charmed” alum wore an oversized button-down T-shirt with flared jeans and a black newsboy cap. She carries a brown paper bag in her arms.
Doherty was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, undergoing a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. She went into remission in 2017, but shared in February 2020 that she was battling stage 4 breast cancer.
She has been very open about her cancer battle over the past few years.
In June 2023, Doherty shared a clip on Instagram of “what cancer might look like” before her brain surgery.
“I’m obviously trying to be brave but I’m scared,” Doherty wrote. “The fear was overwhelming for me. Scared of all the possible bad outcomes, worried about leaving my mom and how it would affect her. Worried that I wouldn’t get out of surgery.”
Later that year, he said in an interview with People that he was not ready to die.
“I’m not alive. I don’t end with love. I am not made. I hope I didn’t end up changing things for the better. I’m not right — I’m not done,” Doherty said.